Weekend at Ruaha

On Friday morning, I returned to the primary school for another English class, followed by a math class, with Pendael and my Standard VII students. Then after lunch, Amy, Jack, and I took off for a weekend at Ruaha National Park. A park employee named Alex picked us up at the mission house in Pommern and drove us 3 and a half hours to Ruaha Hilltop Lodge. It was a very difficult ride over rough, unpaved roads, and the temperature increased as we declined in elevation. I think I inhaled half the dust in Tanzania along the way, too.

The ride was definitely worth it, however, as the lodge was absolutely breathtaking. We experienced amazing African hospitality, hot running water, and fantastic food. Situated high on a large hill, as the name would suggest, we had an incredible view of the trees and plains of the Great Rift Valley, with mountains in the distance. The lodge is composed of a bunch of huts with thatched roofs. Each guest room is a separate hut (10 or 12 of them, I believe), plus a main lodge with two levels.

Hilltop Lodge, as seen from the road below

The view from the second floor of the main lodge.

A panoramic view over the Great Rift Valley, taken from the balcony in the above picture.

When we arrived, we were immediately greeted with glasses of tamarind juice to calm our stomachs and warm, wet washcloths to wipe our faces. As soon as we entered the main lodge, we were also treated to fresh, warm, salty popcorn. Yum! After finishing our juice and popcorn, we were escorted to our rooms (aka, huts!) and our bags were carried for us. I had a hut all to myself with a king size bed and an attached bathroom complete with running water. Remember that at this time, we had no running water at the mission house, so this was an especially welcome treat!

Three of the guest huts at Hilltop Lodge. Amy and Jack stayed in the
one on the far right. My hut was hidden behind theirs in this shot.

After we settled in, took HOT showers, drank COLD pop, and enjoyed the beautiful view, we were served dinner -- a 3-course meal consisting of cucumber soup (which even I, the picky eater, really liked!) and rolls for the first course; seasoned rice, beef, and potatoes for the main course; and bananas drizzled with orange sauce for dessert. It was delectable! Oh, and did I mention that on that first night we were the only guests at the lodge and therefore had all the attention to ourselves? Awesome!! The whole thing felt like the reward challenges in the reality TV show Survivor, where you are whisked away to some wonderful place for exciting adventures. I'm not trying to imply that Pommern is really like Survivor, but there was definitely a stark contrast between the two locations!

On Saturday morning, we awoke early, ate a fantastic breakfast, and set out on our game drive through the national park. Let's play Two Truths and a Lie about the game drive, shall we? If you don't know this game, you are going to read three statements and decide which of the three is NOT true. Ready? Here we go! 1: We sat just 10 feet from a lion that was resting in the grass. 2: We watched a crocodile eat a baby hippo. 3: Our vehicle was charged by an angry elephant. Got your answer picked out?

Okay, number two is the lie, but we did see both crocs and hippos. Sitting so close to a lion was absolutely amazing. Thankfully she was in a pretty lazy mood and wasn't interested in dinner at the moment. Another time a little while on, we sat about 20 feet from a group of 5 lions. That was neat, too. As for the elephant, we were passing through an area where there were lots of trees, and an elephant was just off the road but hidden by the bush. He definitely thought we were intruding in his space and let us know -- angry ivory tusks coming at us and a loud honk of his trunk. Thankfully we had a fantastic driver who quickly floored us forward and out of harm's way!

We saw all kinds of animals, though not quite everything Ruaha has to offer -- no leopards or cheetahs, for example -- but we did see many other creatures. I absolutely love getting to see such fascinating wildlife....in the wild, not in a zoo. I think I'll let the pictures and accompanying captions tell the rest of the story of our game drive. Enjoy!

And....we're off! Our fantastic driver (whose name I never caught)
and Alex, our guide, as we left Hilltop Lodge.

We saw these impala before we even reached the park boundary. If only we
had known then how many zillions of impala we were going to see that day,
this would not have been nearly as exciting!

The sign welcoming us to Ruaha National Park, the second largest park in Africa.

This is the open-top jeep vehicle in which we rode. Jack is sitting inside. The
vehicle allowed us to stand up for a better view while still keeping us in the shade.

This is a little random, but where we were parked in the above picture (while Alex and
our driver paid the park entrance fees) they were redoing the parking lot lines. This
happens a little differently when the lines are stones buried in a trench in the dirt.
These guys were working VERY hard!

Just inside the park gates, this is me above the Great Ruaha River.

All right, if you insist, I suppose heeding that advice would be wise....

Crikey! Those are some crocodiles in the water!

Hippos, having fun swimming.

Pardon the camp song here, but I couldn't resist....
In the beginning God made the seas, and the forest filled with trees;
He built the mountains up so high, and up above He made the sky.
God's fingerprints are everywhere, just to show how much He cares;
And in the middle He had some fun, He made the HIPPO that weighs a ton!
Hip, hip, HIP-PO-POT-A-MUS, hip, hip, hooray, God made all of us;
Hip, hip, HIP-PO-POT-A-MUS, hip, hip, hooray, God made all of us!

Our first giraffe sighting! The Swahili word for giraffe is twiga. Very fitting.

Giraffes are my favorite African animal. If you look closely, you can see that
this giraffe decided to pose for the picture along with me -- how sweet!

Panoramic view over Ruaha National Park.

A baobab tree. The bark at the bottom of all of the baobab
trees we saw had been eaten away by elephants.

Neat fact: There is an entire town in the middle of Ruaha National Park. I think mostly
rangers and their families live here, but the town is complete with a school.

A few people outside their homes in the town; a baboon watches from its
perch on the tree brances.

This is a male kudu, a very impressive looking species of antelope.
When they walk, they strut like roosters.

A female waterbuck, another variety of antelope.

The two lighter colored antelope are gazelles. The darker one in front is an impala.

This is a large rodent called a rock hyrax.

The view from our jeep mid-morning. I was thankful for the clouds that day as they
kept the temperature cooler and shielded us from the hot sun.

Zebras, my second favorite African animal.

Another zebra, standing in the road ahead of us.

Our first of several lion sightings!

Another crocodile, this time out of the water. He looks vicious. I'll keep my distance.

A hippo in the water in the foreground; a saddle bill stork in the background.

A sausage tree, as it is affectionately known. The "sausages" are actually
poisonous fruit, though the fruit is used in African herbal medicine as a
cure for a wide variety of illnesses.

Another lion sighting; this time we got to see a male! Did you know that the Swahili
word for lion is simba? Amazing what The Lion King will teach you!

THIS is the lion that was only 10 feet away from us. Nice kitty....!

Proving how close we were to the lioness -- SO COOL!

A vervet monkey. This was my first time seeing monkeys in the wild. They're such acrobats!

More impala. Three grown females and a very young calf.


Left: The flat-top trees that look like they are straight out of The Lion King are acacia trees.
Right: A cactus grows amongst the other trees.


We saw a herd of HUNDREDS of African buffalo. We had to wait for the whole
herd to cross the road in front of us before we could move forward. They
looked very formidable in such a large group like that!

Me standing in the jeep; the herd crosses in front of us.

Another vervet monkey. And no, rafiki does not mean "monkey"
in Swahili. Instead, the word rafiki means "friend."

These are the 5 lions that were about 20 feet away from us. They were very calm!

I absolutely love giraffes. They are so majestic. This picture is
one of my favorites from Ruaha.

Warthogs. Not to be confused with Hogwarts. And they are downright ugly. Sorry, Pumba.

This is where we stopped to eat lunch. Very nice. And there were even bathrooms!

A river bed, just beyond the hut in the previous picture. It was the dry season
in Tanzania when we were there. It rains a lot from December to April, but
hardly at all the rest of the months. Jack and Amy are taking a stroll.

Looking the other direction, we could see giraffes in the distance.

Guinea fowl. Goofy looking birds.

A female kudu.

Male impala.

Right after we got away from the elephant that charged us, we saw
plenty more that treated us much more nicely!

An elephant eating tree leaves.

Another river bed. We climbed down a large slippery rock to get
to this spot. Amy watches a giraffe.

Giraffes, baboons, and impala along the river bed. There were elephants farther down, too.

A termite mound. Crazy what little insects can build!

More zebra, including a foal.

This is a jackal, a type of canine similar to a coyote. Jackals are carnivores.

This is a dik-dik, the smallest species of antelope. A full-grown dik-dik is only about 2 feet
tall. For some reason, my sister and her friends are fascinated by these cute little guys.

Breaking into song once again....
Never smile at a crocodile;
No, you can't get friendly with a crocodile;
Don't be taken in by his welcome grin;
He's imagining how well you'd fit within his skin.
Never smile at a crocodile;
Never dip your hat and stop to talk awhile;
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day;
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mister Crocodile!

As we ended our 10-hour game drive, we again crossed the large bridge over the
Great Ruaha River. The hippos and crocodiles had moved out of the water.
Those 4 lumps that look like big rocks are hippos at rest.

Two hippos on their feet, walking back toward the river.

What a great day we had! Karibu tena means "welcome again," or in other words
"come again." The word karibu is used extremely frequently in Swahili to mean
"welcome," "you're welcome," "come in," and so on. I miss hearing that word!!